Civil Engineering Construction & Graphics

(CE-205)
Spring Semester 2021
Joints In Construction

Civil Engineering Department

NFC-IEFR, Faisalabad
 Introduction
 While we may not observe it visually, buildings are in constant motion.
 Wind causes buildings to sway, temperature changes cause expansion and
contraction in the buildings surfaces and moisture causes expansion of materials.
Additionally, seismic events can cause differential movement in both the
structure and finishes of a building.
 Designing for building movement is an important part of detailing a building .
This can be achieved by the use of joints to take up the movement.
 A building joint is essentially a separation of building elements that allows for
independent movement and protects the structure and finishes from damage.
 Introduction
• Joints are planned Break in the concrete structures which allow RCC to move and
prevent random cracking.
• The separation or planes of weakness introduced at different locations in a
building are known as joints in the building.
• When joints are provided in a building reasonable care has to exercised for the
location, design, detailing of joints and selecting materials for forming and filling
the joint.
 Purpose of providing joints
• The purpose of providing joints at
different locations in building is to
accommodate large dimensional
changes occurring due to the expansion
and contraction of the building .
• Joints are usually provided in large or
multi- storeyed buildings
• But joints should not be provided in
shell structures and certain other rigid
structures where provision of joints
interfere with the rigidity of the
structure.
 Types of Joints
 Joints provided in reinforced concrete construction can be classified as follows:
• Construction joints
• Expansion joints
• Contraction or control joints (dummy joint)
• Sliding or slip joints
 Construction joints
• These joints are provided at places where placing of concrete must be stopped
for some reason during construction.
• In general, their locations are different from the location of the expansion and
contraction joints which are incorporated in the design of the structure.
• A construction joint occurs when there are multiple concrete placements. It can
occur between different days of concrete placements.
• In mega projects there are starting and stopping points. The entire concrete work
may not be done at once, hence concrete pouring needs to be stopped causing a
joint in element known as Construction Joint.
 Construction joints
• Construction joints are placed at points of ending and beginning of construction
for provision of a smooth transition between pours. These joints are formed
between successive building element parts during construction work, in which
one part is allowed to harden before the next is place
• Suitability . Construction joints are provided at floors, slabs, beams and girders
Expansion joints
 Expansion joints
• These joints permit expansion and contraction.
• They are provided to allow for the movement of the structure and hence they
come under movement joint
• These are structural separation between building elements that allow
independent movement without damage to the assembly.
• An expansion joint is used in concrete and steel. An expansion joint allows the
concrete or steel to expand or contract with daily temperature variations.
• If you don’t allow this, you may get buckling or total failures. They are commonly
provided in bridges, railway tracks and other structures.
 Expansion joints
In building construction, an expansion joint is a mid-structure separation
designed to relieve stress on building materials caused by building movement
induced by:
• thermal expansion and contraction caused by temperature changes,
• sway caused by wind
• seismic events
• static load deflection
• live load deflection
The function of expansion joints is to accommodate the expansion of adjacent
parts of a building and relative the compressive stresses that may otherwise
develop.
Suitability. Expansion joints are provided in long masonry walls, roofs, floors,
framed structrues
 Contraction or control joints
• These joints allow only contraction. They generally consist of a simple butt joint
without any bond. They are shrinkage joints to allow shrinkage.
• Otherwise they will lead to excessive cracking. A dummy joint is a partial joint
used to allow contraction.
• A control joint or contraction joint is a joint that is put in the concrete to control
cracking. Control Joints (often confused with expansion joints) are cuts or grooves
made in concrete or asphalt at regular intervals.
• These joints are made at locations where there are chances of cracks or where
the concentration of stresses are expected, so that when a concrete does crack,
the location will be known to you
 Contraction or control joints
• In such a way concrete will not crack randomly
but in a straight line (i.e. control joint). In other
words Contraction or Control Joints are Pre-
Planned Cracks. The cracks may be due to
temperature variations or drying shrinkage or
other reasons.
• Types of Contraction joints:
• Complete contraction joint
• Partial contraction joint
• Dummy contraction joint.
 Sliding joints
• These joints are usually formed by introducing smooth layer of plaster between
the two surfaces.
• (Thus roof slabs are cast on brick walls after plastering them with a smooth
surface and applying a coat of whitewash.)
• Slip joints in large structures are used to allow independent motion of large
components while enabling them to be joined in some way.
• For example, if two tall buildings are to be joined with a pedestrian skyway at
some high level, there are two options in structural engineering.
• If the buildings are identical in mass and elasticity they will tend to respond
similarly to ground motion induced by earthquakes.
 Sliding joints
• In this case it may be suitable to construct a rigid connection between the
buildings, although this may require additional supporting members within the
structures.
• On the other hand, a lower cost connection may be made by using a lightweight
structure that is not coupled rigidly but instead which is allowed to slide or "float"
relative to one or both structures
 Jointing materials
The materials used for forming and filling joints in structures are known as
jointing materials.
These materials are used for forming and filling joints to seal them against entry
of water and permit expansion of their components.
The following types of materials are used in buildings
• Joint filler
• Sealing compounds
• waterbar
 Joint Filler
• The strip of compressible material used to form and fill the expansion joints
provided in a structure in known as joints filler.
• Joint filler may be manufactured from a variety of a materials such as bitumen,
bitumen containing cellular materials, cork strips or granules, natural or cellular
rubber, expanded plastic, polythene foam etc.
 Sealing Compound
• A material of plastic consistency applied to the joint in the form of a liquid or
paste are known as sealing compound.
• Hot applied bituminous sealing compounds conforming to ISI specification are
commonly used for sealing joint in structures
 Water bar
• A strip placed across the joint during construction so as form an impervious
diaphragm is called as water bar.
• This type of jointing material may be of natural of synthetic rubber,
polyvinylchloride (PVC) or metal.